This marks the end of our Town Hall. Thank you to all of the candidates for their time, and to all others who came here to ask questions and to support the candidates. Good luck to everyone as this election approaches its close!

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As mentioned, @TimStone will be making a digest of this that will be available after this at some point. Candidates who haven't finished, you are free to continue answering in here until you reach the end (and anyone who couldn't make it is also allowed to answer post-fact) - this end only signifies the end of new questions, not the time you have to answer.

@RichardJ.RossIII People who post negative stuff on places like reddit aren't likely to have their minds changed by anything I could say. My "job" is to keep Stack Overflow on course and if that means that some people don't participate then so be it. We can't be all things to all people - that way lies Yahoo! Answers.

@GraceNote There's a great selection of candidates here. My suggestion would be to vote based on what you've seen people do, actions speak louder than words. That's how I've picked who I'm going to vote for. I hope you agree with my actions and trust me to be fair and open.

@GraceNote I encourage you to check out my activity history (comments, revisions, reviews) as well as the other candidates' histories. If you think of any other questions you'd like to ask me, feel free! (cont'd...)

@BradLarson This is exactly why the site needs moderators. That question is impossible to answer without having a specific post to reference. delete/undelete wars ensue and someone needs to step in and lock it down.

@RichardJ.RossIII I don't have a reddit account. I saw a /. story today that was pleasantly positive. I hope I'll project a good image into my zone of influence. Reddit isn't the only programmers community out there and SO is highly regarded in many areas precisely because of some of the controversial issues.

@GraceNote The most qualified candidates are those who have already qualified to be moderators on other SE sites. From them I'd say, partly attributed to my interactions with him on meta, @ChrisF is a solid choice and would make a great moderator.

@NullUserException Not at all (I hope). Many times I feel myself wanting to close a question with a binding vote. I'd want to leave a comment when casting a binding vote but this isn't always possible.

@Shog9 There will always be super-active users on meta who I trust will dull the blow :P I would respond in the same way as any interaction on the site. Friendly but stern (when necessary). I won't let it turn into a cussing match, but I'll be very willing to explain the rational behind whatever action the user found offensive, and if needed, I wouldn't have a problem reversing the action should I be satisfied that a mistake was made.

@Shog9 Sorry I missed this earlier, it scrolled past the top of the screen while I was answering other questions. Actually, if history is any guide, I won't have to do anything. When anti-mod polemics show up on MSO, other users typically jump in pretty quickly. If I really did screw up big time, I'd just explain what happened calmly and professionally, promise to resolve the issue and then get right to work with fellow mods to fix it and make sure I didn't repeat the mistake.

@MadaraUchiha That all depends on what type of flag was raised. Obviously spam and custom flags shouldn't necessarily be related to technical issues but for off-topic flags, I don't think you have to be an expert to recognize a problematic post.

@GraceNote Sorry I missed this earlier, it scrolled past the top of the screen while I was answering other questions. Sure I'm nervous. I don't ever want to make the wrong call, but I'm human, and at some point I'm going to screw up. Heck, I already feel bad about it. I also worry that I won't live up to the standard of the current mods. But I think I have the healthy kind of nervousness, the kind that will keep me sharp, not the crippling kind that will prevent me from doing the job.

@BradLarson Would it be too glib to just say I'd follow the current guidelines? I'd reserve deletion for questions that are blatantly off-topic, unanswerable or offensive, excluding historically locked posts. Closing is for stuff that just doesn't meet standards.

@swasheck I've never learned any single technical thing on SO that was truly mind-blowing, so I guess it'd have to be something about how awesome programmers are, as horribly generic and saccharine as that sounds. But really, there are a lot of amazing SO users, in terms of how they are at coding and at being human beings, and it's really motivating. Okay, let accusations of pandering commence.

@Mysticial I missed those specific ones. I was aware that there were some negative views though. (I get my tech news from theregister mostly). It's a hard problem though, but most programmers I know in the real world say stuff like "I couldn't live without it" when they mention SO.

@mattytommo pretty much done now. There will be a summary on MSO in a day or two though.

@rlemon Move it to a different room. Although "constructive" is a pretty broad definition, as long as they are not at each others throats they can just take it to their own room... let them CAPS all they want in there...

@Shog9 Yep.. this is self promotion (the link is the same as listed in his profile under 'website'). If the user is spamming the site with links to the post then some serious action needs to be taken against that account. Otherwise delete the answer with a comment (perhaps with a link to the "attribution required" post) explaining why.

@GraceNote Moderators are "human exception handlers". They play a fundamental part in the large task that is regulating and maintaining the community, with the help from many StackOverflow users be it from the flagging system, editing, voting etc. Without them, the majority of the content on this site wouldn't be anywhere near the level of quality that it is at the moment, but things can only get better! If I was voted, I'd love to strive to make that even better.

@AnnaLear Exceptional circumstances I would say are when there's an element of investigative work, or when thinks aren't "black or white". Such situations could go against the majority of participants in said situation, but the Moderator must have the community's interests at heart and not be swayed by personal or social agendas.

@GraceNote The most important job of a moderator I would say is to do the right thing for the community, however unpopular that decision may be, your main focus must always be the community.

@Shog9 Differently, I want to be the one that can act on situations, not just raise them for other people's attention. Whenever I flag it, I feel like I'm passing it off to somebody else. I'd love to be the one who was actually dealing with these matters.

@NullUserException As mentioned in my original nomination, I have recently seen question answering taking more of a back seat more and more and this is the direction that I'd like to head in. My SO day used to be answer, answer, answer. Now it's review flags, review review queues, vote questions/answers that I like, then answer if I have time left (I usually do :). Answering is now last on my list, the moderator-esque duties take full priority, which they would do so even more if I was a Moderator.

@GraceNote Predominantly weekdays, pretty much in and out from 8am-7pm GMT. Less frequent on the weekend, I'd probably say a 2-3 hours on Sat and the same on Sun (if not slightly more).

@swasheck I think what was a fantastic idea could have been executed a little more thoroughly. Although I do appreciate it's a community-wide effort which makes execution incredibly more difficult!

@AnnaLear I think I'd take extra care when speaking around the community (I do already) because it's the extra responsibility, "wearing" that diamond means that I'd be a representative of the SO team and that's a great reputation I'd strive to uphold/maybe even increase!? In terms of flagging, I think I'll take extra care when reviewing items and looking at things in more detail, as I'll be the final say in the matter.

@MadaraUchiha I think that a good balance of all of those makes a well rounded Moderator. It's pointless focusing all of your effort in one of those areas, it's all of those combined that help maintain the community.

@swasheck I think that giving them some praise, or "positive reinforcement" as psychology calls it would spur them on to either expand/correct a "lazy" answer, or to answer it themselves with what they deem to be a better answer. A bit of healthy competition, humor and praise is enough to encourage anyone to participate more :)

@Neal My passion to give back to the fantastic community that is Stack Overflow. I feel that I've learned an incredible amount, solely thanks to this community. I feel a sense of pride when performing tasks such as flagging/voting etc. as I'm playing my part in upholding the fantastic community. As a moderator, I feel I'd have even more tools to be able to give back so much more and help maintain the community.

@BradLarson If a closed question still provides useful knowledge/information, or contains solutions that are likely to be searched for, then the question should remain un-deleted to help bring in further traffic from people encountering the same issue. If however the question is of no use to anybody, then it is best that it is deleted.

@NullUserException The same with flagging, I'll spend more time weighing up the evidence before making a decision as the decision is final, so I think I should go out of my way to ensure that it is the right decision.

@Shog9 Diplomatically, I'll respond by ensuring that the user knows that I did it purely on what I thought was best for the community, not for any other personal agenda or otherwise.

@MadaraUchiha If I can't ascertain whether or not that the question is eligible for closing and I'm not comfortable on that topic, I'd leave it for another moderator who is more skilled in that topic enough to make an educated decision.

@swasheck That no matter how right you think you are, there is usually always someone that will provide a much better solution. That's part of the beauty of the community, learning while helping! Not only am I doing the OP a favour, I'm also benefiting by expanding my knowledgebase

@MadaraUchiha Age is but a number. Maturity doesn't correlate with age, which is incredibly evident when you see how young and how mature some of the users on StackOverflow are.

@Shog9 Well done to Wobble I say :). We're all working for a common goal, keeping the community as relevant and as clean as we can, so one can only applaud Wobble's voting record.

@Gordon As long as a candidate has had access to the moderator tools and has had a feel for them, then I say they're ready. I for one am only at 11k, but I feel that when I hit 20k I won't magically become a better mod :)

@swasheck You make some mo'. As Terry Tate would say ;)

@BradLarson Send him a polite mod message, get him to engage, maybe talk out his angst, there could be other issues behind it. Just be someone to listen, try and re-draw the positives and his love for the community that spurred him on to get a high reputation in the first place.

@GraceNote I wouldn't say so, it's nothing that's not to be expected. I know what I'm signing myself up to and I'm so committed to do so that I have no unease or nervousness :)

@RaghavSood I don't think I would know which tags are in desperate attention, but if one was raised by a community member, I'd surely divert my attention and help clean it up (voting, editing, deleting, migrating questions etc.).

it just so happens I have written a userscript to moustachify all chat gravatars. The way I figure it is; I should at least show you what you look like to me :P then you'll (or whoever) will understand why i'm always so happy

@Shog9 Deem it as invalid, open the link, research the tool, edit the answer to provide a synopsis of what the tool offers. It's too easy to downvote and write something off, whereas a good mod in my opinion works to salvage the post.

@rlemon I feel that getting to know the community on a personal level is a pretty important step. It helps you further understand the person behind the words, sometimes it's difficult to come across, but if you know someone on a personal level, you'll know exactly what they mean.